Portsmouth woman did not die of mad cow-related condition, USDA says

Preliminary test results indicate that a 22-year-old Portsmouth woman who died in April did not have an illness that has been associated with eating contaminated beef, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official said this week.

"The epidemiologic characteristics of the illness and preliminary results of the neuropathologic testing of brain tissue obtained at autopsy indicate that the patient did not die of" a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which has been associated with mad cow disease, said Richard Raymond, USDA undersecretary for food safety. He was speaking Sunday to a group of Korean and American reporters in Washington.

"The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just provided us with that information, and I felt it was important to share with you today," he told the group. The comment appears on a statement on the safety of the U.S. beef supply that is available on the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service Web site.

Aretha Vinson died April 9 at Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth. She had a degenerative brain condition that can be caused by a wide variety of things, and concerns were raised that she might have had vCJD. The state health department, CDC and the University of Virginia were involved in testing to determine the cause of death and whether it indicated a public health concern.

"There's no threat to the general public," said Michelle Peregoy, a Virginia Department of Health spokeswoman. She would not say more, citing patient confidentiality issues.

Nancy Young, (757) 446-2947, nancy.young@pilotonline.com